Elon Musk Says He'll Step Down as Twitter CEO If He Finds a Replacement

Two months after buying Twitter for $44 million, Elon Musk may be walking away from his title as CEO. Read on for the one condition he has.

By Corinne Heller Dec 21, 2022 5:53 PMTags
Watch: Elon Musk & Grimes' Son X Rocks a Twitter Office Badge

Elon Musk may be out the door as CEO of Twitter. There's just one catch.

"I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!" the billionaire, who bought Twitter in October for $44 million and has drawn controversy over the takeover itself and company changes he made after assuming the role, tweeted Dec. 20. "After that, I will just run the software & servers teams."

And one social media pioneer jokingly volunteered as tribute. Tom Anderson, a.k.a. "Tom From MySpace," responded with a screenshot of his famous MySpace profile pic and bio, which also read, "Last login: 3/11/2006."

Meanwhile, Snoop Dogg tweeted, "Should I run Twitter?"

Two days earlier, Musk surveyed his social media platform's users about his role.

"Should I step down as head of Twitter?" the Tesla CEO, who has more than 122.5 million followers, tweeted Dec. 18. "I will abide by the results of this poll."

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Elon Musk's Complicated Family Tree

As of Dec. 21, Musk's Twitter poll included more than 17.5 million users, with 57.5 percent clicking yes while 42.5 percent said no.

Since Musk's takeover of Twitter, he has drawn backlash over changes to the company's content moderation and privacy policies, the reinstatement of former President Donald Trump's account and the Dec. 15 suspension of several high-profile journalists' pages.

Musk had accused them of sharing private information about his whereabouts. NBC News was unable to verify that allegation.

Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for CAA

The journalists' accounts were reinstated two days later, following the results of, yes, a Twitter poll.

Musk tweeted, "The people have spoken."

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